Practical Strategies for Coteaching

Have you been asked to coteach next year?

Do you coteach now but aren't sure whether you're doing it well?

Judging by the crowd that filled the room for the Monday session Coteaching: Practical Strategies for Facilitating Student Learning, many educators have questions about coteaching. The session presenters gave clear, practical information for getting started or getting better at coteaching, distinguishing four approaches to it:

• supportive
• parallel
• complementary
• team teaching

They also discussed and answered FAQs about these approaches, and helped participants consider various issues related to each. Best of all, the three presenters actively modeled each approach throughout the session, blending content and delivery--really "walking the talk"--to heighten participants' understanding.

What are your thoughts about coteaching? Write a comment using the comment button at the bottom of this post.

• Read seven tips for coteachers and learn about the coteaching balancing act in Making Differences Ordinary Through Coteaching.

• Two of the presenters, Richard A. Villa and Jacqueline S. Thousand, included a chapter about collaborative teaching in Creating an Inclusive School.